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// Chapter One- Tirek 
// Story: Love And Joy 
// by Mister E 
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           Something was different. A newer arrival would probably never notice, but Tirek had been here a long long time, and even the most minute change, could, and would, be noticed.
The hot fetid air still smelled the same. The anguished wails of the damned still rose in it's annoying crescendo. The counter above his cell remained unchanged. Tirek considered it a sick joke. What purpose did a counter serve, when it held the infinity symbol upon it. Was it only to reinforce the fact that he would never be allowed the hope of release? Bah! 
Upon pacing the confines of his all too small cell, he found the dimensions to be exactly the same as they had been each of the hundreds of other times he had performed this same task. No, his environs seemed exactly the same. And yet SOMETHING was different. 

He asked himself aloud. “Has this hateful place finally, finally caused me to crack? To break down after so very long? No, preposterous! I am still me, I am still Tirek.” 

He began to unconsciously pace the confines of his cell.

“And yet… something is different. Today is somehow different.” He muttered to himself.

Suddenly, a smell wafted across his path, one he was intimately familiar with.

“Magic!” He suddenly, said, trying to keep from shouting. “That was magic. Familiar and yet, somehow different than any I have known before.”

Tirek turned in his pacing, and then he saw it. It was a brightly wrapped package, sitting neatly on the nest of dank straw upon which he slept. Tirek stopped his pacing.

“This makes no sense.” Tirek muttered to himself as he approached the package. “Magic strong enough to break the seals of Tartarus, just to send me a garishly wrapped box?”

Tirek lifts the box from the straw, and instinctively does what sentient beings from across all realities have done since the dawn of time. He holds it up to the side of his head, and gives it a shake.

“Hmm, moderately heavy,” another shake, “more than one thing inside,” another shake, “yes, whatever is on top is lighter...” He places the box back on the straw and seats himself before it.

There is a tag on top that had gone unnoticed up until now, that had been obscured by the large red bow. He plucks it up and begins to read aloud.

“To Tirek, Happy Hearth's Warming.” Then below that, “You are loved.” Tirek ponders those eight words for a moment then his face cracks with a scowl. “So, it's Hearth's Warming up above, yet again. Foolish pony holiday. Scorpan was forever prattling on about it. Unity… happiness… love… forgiveness…. Bah! Foolish sentimentality! Then he pauses a moment. “Wait, you mean that some pony up there, summoned unimaginable magical forces, just to send ME some sort of Hearth's Warming present? Madness! And even so, why now, why THIS Hearth's Warming?”

The card in his hand shimmers for a moment. He looks down at it once more. The words have changed. They now say, “Because you are ready.”

Tirek's scowl breaks into confusion upon reading those four words. He sits before the box on the straw. Pondering. 
There is no magic left to the box for him to absorb. And yet, he is now more wary than ever.

“I was right, something HAS changed.” He mutters to himself. Looking again at the box, this time with dread. “I feel as if I am on the edge of a cliff, and that whatever lies within this box will be the cause of my doom.” 

He raises up the box in his frail limbs intending to dash in upon the floor. But then he lowers it once more, and thinks.

“Eternal stagnation, or this, some unknown doom.” He says to the emptiness around him. “Shall I ponder it a few more centuries? Of course, I must open the box! Even if what is inside destroys me, better an end, than this eternal, unending sameness.”

Without another word, Tirek claws the ribbon off of the box, rips apart the paper, and removes the lid. Inside, a tiny smaller box, rests upon the top of a divider, concealing the remaining contents. Tirek lifts out the small box, and looks at it with fresh dread forming.

“And so it is this. The herald of my doom. What form shall it take I wonder?” Tirek says, before taking a deep breath and opening up one end.

Raising the unopened end causes the contents to spill out into Tirek's waiting palm, where now rests an all too familiar medallion.

“Scorpan?!? How is this possible?” Tirek rubs the medallion between his fingers. Tracing the familiar grooves. “Wait, this isn't mine, this pattern… this was, this was HIS!”

Suddenly time fades away as Tirek's thoughts drift to the distant past. It was so very long ago, and yet he remembers…

“Surprise!” the youthful voice of Scorpan rings out, causing the cavern to reverberate with echos.

“What? What is all this!” An equally youthful Tirek responds, blinking in surprise at the feast laid out before him.

“How can you be so shocked.” His father says with mock contempt, “did you really think that the day of your ascension would pass unremarked and unnoticed?”

“Glad tidings on your fifteenth birthday son,” his mother says smiling warmly. As she strides forward and embraces him.

“Mooom!” Tirek says in embarrassment, trying in vain to pull away.

“Oh that's right! My son is an adult now. Gone are the days when he would need something as foolish as his mother's love.” She moves to release him, but finds that Tirek is holding her tightly.

“Never say that mother.” Tirek whispers. Then slightly louder, “but perhaps… just not in front of my friends?”

His mother smiles down softly, as he releases her embrace.

“Brother! Brother, I have a gift for you!” Scorpan says excitedly, as he holds up a box before his elder brother.

“Oh what is it this year Scorpan!” Tirek says in exasperation. “Honestly, you have got to be the softest member of our entire race!” Tirek says before snatching the box in his hands.

Opening it, he lifts out two nearly identical medallions. “Two? Why did you give me two brother?”
Tirek says, turning them to study them in the cavern's flickering light.

“Well one is for me, and one is for you. I made them myself. I thought that you should pick out the one you liked best, and then I would have the other. Look brother, see they lock together like this.” Scorpan says as he turns the two in his claws causing them to link together, forming an entirely new pattern.

“That's very clever son,” their father says from behind them, smiling thinly at Scorpan's gift.

Turning, Tirek catches his mother offering a shake of her head toward his father. He knew that his father thought Scorpan was too soft. A day dreamer. He knew his father loved him all the same, but also knew that he worried that Scorpan would never become strong enough to help rule the kingdom.
It was up to Tirek to set the example. It was up to Tirek to be the strong leader that Scorpan could model himself after.

Tirek turned back to his brother. “All of your effort, just to make these?!? Tirek said, handing back the medallions. Brother you are a skilled metal smith, think what you could have made in the same amount of time. A fine sword, a mighty spear. And yet you waste your talents on trinkets?!?”

“Tirek, that's enough!” The voice of his father, cut through his tirade. “Your brother labored long to make you this gift. His efforts should be appreciated.”

“But father!” Tirek said in surprise, thinking that he had pleased him with his words.

“Hush son,” his mother said. “I understand. And so does your father. But think about how your brother feels.”

Tirek turns and faces his younger brother Scorpan. It was obvious that he was fighting back tears. And yet he smiled at Tirek. “I'm sure you are right brother. A sword or a spear would have suited you better. I suppose I was thinking too much about myself.” He turns away, so that Tirek can no longer see his face. “Next year, I will t-try to do better. Now, let's enjoy this feast eh? Mother has made sure that all of your favorite dishes are here, including your favorite dessert!”

“Brother...” Tirek says, returning from the haze of distant memories, to his cell once more. 

He clutches the medallion hard in his hand. Thinking of it's twin forever lost.

“Oh brother. Why did I never tell you? Why did I never tell you what I really thought that day? How much it meant to me, that you would labor so, to give me such a wondrous gift. And on that day that we parted, despite my anger and insults, you still held onto them, you still cared enough to give me that keepsake, despite all of my rage.”

Tears long unshed began to from and fall from the desiccated face of the former Lord Tirek.

“And then, to give it away, just to win the trust of the Lord of Chaos. It's probably locked away in the chaos dimension, or turned into a chicken for all I know! Oh brother! Please, please forgive me!” Tirek wails, his anguish echoing in the rafters, joining with the cries of all the other prisoners.
Suddenly, a deep 'TOCK' reverberates his cell from on high. Tirek looks up in wonder at the counter above his cell. Instead of the infinity symbol that has been his constant companion for all these many centuries, the counter now reads 999,999,999.
Tirek clutches the medallion tightly to his chest. Soon he will put it on, it will be his source of hope. Hope that grows each Hearth's Warming as the counter above him gifts him with one less year each time.
Suddenly Tirek remembers the still undiscovered contents that remain in the lower half of the box. He turns, and lifts out the divider. Carefully he lifts out an extra large...

“Fruitcake?!? Tirek exclaims incredulously. “My FAVORITE!” He holds it up to his face, inhaling the wonderful aroma, which fills him again with joyous memories of the past. “Thank you! Whoever you are, thank you! A-and… and… Happy Hearth's Warming!”


High above and far away. Up in the frozen north, an alicorn princess, and a pink earth pony, are deep in conversation in front of a viewing crystal.

The alicorn turns away from the crystal, with tears in her eyes, as she faces the earth pony beside her. “I must admit,” Princess Mi Amore Cadenza says dabbing her eyes, at first I was quite skeptical Pinkie, but you were right. You were so wonderfully right!” she says as fresh tears begin to fall.

Pinkie Pie pulls her into a tight hug. Tears glistening in the corners of her eyes as well. “See, you done good. I KNEW it would work.” Pinkie says proudly. “I mean, every year we always give presents to all of our friends to show them how much we love and appreciate them. But it always seemed to ME, that the ones that needed it the most, were the ones who had it the LEAST. And as the Element of Laughter, I consider it my duty to spread joy to everyone, no matter who or where they may be.”

“You have opened my eyes Pinkie Pie. As the Princess of Love, I can see no higher calling than to aid you in your efforts. My magic is at your disposal.” Cadence says, returning Pinkie's hug.

Well, I'm really glad to here you say that Princess, especially when you hear who is NEXT on my list…